House Elves (again)

[Ebony]

No: HPFGUIDX 26799

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Hillman, Lee" <lee_hillman at u...> wrote:
 However, I continue to disagree with a straight allegory to slavery 
for precisely that reason: House elves, as they have been presented, 
Are. Not.  Human. Just because JKR uses other species as object 
lessons, does it necessarily follow that ALL other beings whom we 
encounter also serve as an allegory to a human social issue? (Boring 
and obvious, IMO, if that's all she's doing.)
> 

Bit of list-history:

About a year and some change ago, this debate was initiated by 
someone who fell on the House-Elves=Slaves side of the equation.  The 
dissention was mildly vehement... the argument ran something along 
the lines of "why would JKR, who is British, allude to slavery of the 
New World variety?"

I was silent then even though I agreed with those who said that it 
reminded them of slavery.  My silence was due to the fact that I was 
relatively new to the list at the time, and I was not sure if my 
ideas were a valid reading of HP's house-elves.

The plight of the house-elves doesn't remind me of that of 
homemakers.  I, too, agree with Hermione.  The house-elf system 
reminds me of feudalism and/or chattel slavery for the reasons that 
Ethanol mentioned.  I have read all of the other replies on this 
thread and those that come up whenever this debate occurs.  I don't 
think that those who disagree with me are necessarily slavery 
advocates... not by any stretch of the imagination.  Perhaps they 
just haven't studied it as I have... and not just the African/New 
World variety, but perpetual slavery as it has evolved/existed over 
time.  *shrug*  Just makes sense to me.  

> Preparing for the backlash...

No worries.  :-D

--Ebony AKA AngieJ